Since we have started on our van-life journey we have found out many ways to optimize our living by simple means. One of them is better internet access in suboptimal conditions.
Before I started moving into the van I did a search for "how to go online in a van" and well, I found a bunch of ideas and recommendations all of which include buying an extra piece of gear to get a better Wifi signal. Expensive gear.
It's not like this comparison is entirely fair because it will always depend on your location and the type of environment you are traveling to, but for us being in the mountains above the Montenegrin coast we have found quite a simple way to get internet access without much fuss. Internet access that is more than enough when it comes to bitrate and connectivity even in places youwould think have no chance of getting any good wifi signal at all.
Use your phone as a hotspot
It might sound trivial, but rather than buying a wifi signal booster, a satellite router or a complex piece of machinery all you really need is a functioning mobile phone (could even be 4 years old, as long as it works, has some battery-life still and can function as a mobile hotspot) and a sim card that provides access to data traffic.
In places like Montenegro you can buy a 30 day tourist sim card prepaid for ten euro, giving you a mighty 1000 GB in data volume. Yep, that's a terrabyte in data for one month for less than 10 dollars. Crazy huh?
Then all you really need to do is to place the phone up high so that it can get cell tower connectivity with the least amount of obstruction. Place in on your van's roof (and secure it with tape to prevent it from falling and or in a plastic bag for humidity protection) and angle the phone's top center towards where you expect the tower to be, here it would be down the valley near the more urban areas. You can also do an online search for websites that show you all towers near you on a map, phone apps also exist that do the same thing.
Your van effectively works as a shield for electromagnetic traffic which is great if you want to get away from the electromagnetic soup, but bad if you need your cell phone to connect to a cell tower.
If placing the phone on your roof doesn't work or feel weird to you we have found an even better hack - glueing the phone into the top right corner of your back window with some duct tape so that the signal can travel through the glass down the valley. It will make charging your phone much easier as well because you always have it in your grasp, inside your van.
This even works when it's pouring outside, like it is today. Where we used to have 80 kbps the first days in this spot with good weather having the phone in the interior at "living level" we now go up to 2 Mbps having it glued in the top of our back windows. The window will also help to cool down the phone on rainy days like this because the glass is cold and wifi hotspotting comes with an increase in work on the phone's part, heating it up.
If it is sunny outside you have to make sure your phone is in the shade or fixed to some sort of cooling metal, like the solar panel holder on the top of your van. Wind also helps majorly with cooling provided your phone is secured against falling. Watch for the angle of the sun as well - internet hotspotting + charging + direct sunlight might kill your phone prematurely.
One more hack that has saved our day here: If you can't get good wifi connection you should always try putting your phone on flight mode (thereby disconnecting all cell tower connections), then turn your flight mode back off. This forces your phone to find the ideal connection to the nearest tower and might get you a way better signal. Phones can be stubborn in this way so they hang on to terrible signals until we help them let go and redo their search for a better connection.
Voilà - you have just used your phone to get the most out of pre-existing technology enabling your laptops and other gizoms to go online without problems.
As long as you are up high, unobstructed by giant rocks or forests and can see houses or towns down below you should always get a wifi signal using these techniques.
If you do want to go far into no man's land you probably do need some sort of pricy special equipment. For us here in Montenegro near the coast though we really couldn't be happier. If only it stopped raining eventually - we need to recharge our battery bank with the solar roof.
But hey, you can't have everything, right?
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